Bloody Baron, by Vladimir Pozner

[vonjunzt]

I decided I wanted to read a book about Roman von Ungern-Sternberg, the strange Bloody Baron of the Russian Civil War who briefly reestablished the Mongolian empire and attempted to restore the Russian empire. There are many rumors about this strange figure who may have believed he was the reincarnation of Genghis Khan, and who some even today view

Comments

[malkhos]

I recoginzed Pozner's name, but no more, probably though his connection to Bunnuel's circle.

Ungern-Sternberg I might vagile recognize also; if so, in connection reading about Sigmund Rosenbloom (Sidney Reilly) or I might be imagining it.

[vonjunzt]

Ungern was one of the warlords who initially owed some allegiance to Admiral Kolchak. For a brief time he was important. I'm sure you saw him mentioned in some history book, but not as a central figure.

[malkhos]

I just skimmed through his wikipedia article which, I confess fully satisfied my curiosity about him. His teen-aged murder of a friend's pet owl did not create much sympathy.

[vonjunzt]

Sounds like you learned more reading the Wikipedia article than I learned from Pozner's book.

[aerodrome1]

Pozner was a commentator who was all over US cable news chat shows back in Gorbachev's day. I'd wondered whatever became of him.

James Palmer's "The Bloody White Baron" is a very good biography of Ungern-Sternberg.

If my memory is still functional, the Baron makes a brief appearance in a small story by Borges about "great villains" or "great madmen". That's a ghost trace of a memory, so it may be itself delusional.

Still-- Palmer's bio is worth reading, and it's hard to imagine any bio of Ungern-Sternberg that doesn't turn into a kind of Steppe High Gothic version of "Blood Meridian".

[aerodrome1]

Wait-- *my* Vladimir Pozner in the 1980s - early 1990s looked to be in his late 40s / early 50s. I wonder if he was the son of *your* Pozner. That would itself be fascinating!